Where I can tell stories, relate experiences and pass along tips discovered while doing research on my family; through volunteer activities, including as an Online Parish Clerk; and from projects completed as a genealogical consultant.

Tuesday, 11 November 2014

More About August Becker’s First Family

As
I indicated in my last post, there are some interesting stories about the
family of August Henry Becker that we were able to unearth in a variety of ways
and places. Much of the information came serendipitously as I moved from source
to source, searching for anything to do with the man and/or the surname.

Eileen
(my client) recalled that a man had shown up at her home in Edmonton, possibly
in the 1930s or ‘40s, claiming to be her father’s son. The man was rushed off
by Eileen’s mother and not a word was ever spoken again about the visit or the
individual’s claim of a connection to August. We are pretty sure the individual
was Robert Becker, August’s youngest son from his first marriage.

In
the process of searching for data, I checked the usual sources for August Becker,
primarily on Ancestry. We knew he had
been born in Pennsylvania, so that bit of information was useful in finding
immigration and settlement documents.

The
1911 Canada census listed both August, Nellie and three children – Joseph,
Emily and Thelma – living almost next door to the family of Henry Needham, in
the Provost area of Eastern Alberta. Two of August’s brothers had also immigrated
to Alberta and lived in the area. The article in Early Furrows, mentioned in my last post, had noted that Nellie and
August had come to Canada in 1906 to join Nellie’s parents – Henry and Susan
Needham – and brothers in homesteading in Eastern Alberta. It also described a
fourth Becker child, Robert. By 1921, August and Nellie were in Edmonton, with
August working as a photo engraver, which was his first and main occupation. He
apparently was not cut out to be a farmer.

Interestingly,
a search of Henderson’s Edmonton Directory on the Peel’s Prairie Provinces website found
August working as a photo engraver at McDermid Engraving Company, proprietor
Mr. F. G. McDermid. August worked there from at least 1919 through 1922. In
1920 Mary Moller joined the firm as a photo retoucher – and so they met! In
1922, August’s daughter Emily also worked at McDermid’s, as a stenographer. We
speculate she was a friend of Mary’s at the time as they were of similar age.

Border-crossing
information showed that August, along with Mary Moller, his future second wife,
had travelled to the US on January 4, 1923. I also found another border
crossing document for Nellie Becker, who went to the US on January 8, 1923. She
was going to “visit” her father, Henry Needham, in Ohio. Nellie was accompanied
by two of her children, Thelma and Robert. Her parents had previously returned
to the US in 1921. The address he gave at the time of his trip to the US in
1923 was the same as the one shown in the directories so things were tying
together.

By
1923, as we saw on the border crossing forms, it appears August’s marriage had
broken up and he was now in love with Mary Moller. Nellie had indicated on the
border crossing document that the last person she had visited or been friends
with in Canada before she left was one F. G. McDermott. I did not think the
similarity of names was a coincidence and she was actually referring to F. G.
McDermid of McDermid Engraving. That seemed to tie the individuals even closer.

The
censuses, border crossing forms and community history book gave us names of the
four children from August’s first marriage along with their birth dates – the
1911 Canada census shows month as well as year – so I searched for them, mainly
to see what had happened after they returned to the US. I found Nellie and the
children on the 1930 and 1940 US federal censuses, living in Pensylvania.

On
further review I discovered Nellie, Emily and Robert, quite by accident, on a
1945 census from Florida, of all places. That set off a whole new investigation
which I will discuss in my next post. The 1945 census showed Robert, was
married, with one daughter who had been born in Pennsylvania in 1943. Nellie
was living with the family as well. Living in the same house was Emily, also now
married and with two sons of her own, also born in Pennsylvania. Joseph and
Thelma appear to have remained in Pennsylvania.

On
Ancestry, I came across August on a private Family Tree. I wrote to the owner
of the tree and found she was related to August through one of his sisters. She
had a great deal of information about his siblings and I was able to give her
more data on August’s life and second family in Canada. Not only did she have
the data on family members, she also had photos of them which she kindly shared
with us.

Photo of the family of August John and Amelia (Herchenbach)
Becker, taken at their Mt. Carmel home in Pennsylvania

We
believe the family picture was taken about 1925, on the occasion of August’s
parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. Nearly all of August’s brothers
and sisters and their children, including his daughter, Emily were shown in the
photograph. Eileen was surprised and delighted by this piece of information.
She had previously thought, and had possibly been told, that her father had travelled
to Pennsylvania in the 1920s for a funeral of one of his parents. She was even
more shocked when I showed her that they were both still alive and well on the
1930 census and then came up with copies of the obituaries notices for both of
them – her grandfather’s in 1932 and her grandmother’s in 1936 – again kindly
given to us by the Ancestry family tree-owner.

Eileen
knew that her paternal grandparents had lived in Pennsylvania after migrating
from Germany in 1880. They were part of a very large population of Germans
recruited to work in the region’s coal mines. Eileen had found some information
in the Mt. Carmel Catholic church records but had never met her grandparents. She
had met one aunt who had visited Canada in 1951, but she had never knew much
about her father’s other siblings. She thought he might have been cut off from
the family following his divorce from Nellie. The family photo demonstrated this
was not the case at all.

Eileen
was now very curious about her half-brothers and sisters and we set about
finding out more about them. In my next post I will detail some of the other
surprising things we found out about those half-siblings and cousins.

Wayne
Shepheard is a volunteer with the Online Parish Clerk program in
England, handling four parishes in Devon, England. He has
published a number of articles about various aspects of genealogy and is a past
Editor of Chinook, the quarterly
journal of the Alberta Family Histories Society. Wayne also provides
genealogical consulting services through his business, Family History Facilitated.

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Miller-Watson Family Ca 1886

The photo in the background of this website is of the Miller-Watson Family, taken in Manhattan, Kansas, USA, around 1886. My great-grandfather, Isaac Mayfield Miller, is in the back row, second from the right. My 2nd great-grandmother, Hannah Tunstal (Mayfield) Miller-Watson, is seated front-centre. The other individuals are all of Hannah's other children from both of her marriages.

About Me

Wayne has pursued family history research for a number of decades, on
his own behalf and for others. He volunteers as an Online Parish Clerk,
handling four parishes in Devon, England. Wayne has also been active with a number of family history societies and is the past editor of two family history society journals. He is also an author of several articles
published in a number of different genealogical journals and has made
presentations at genealogical conferences. Following a long and successful
career as a geologist in the oil & gas industry, Wayne now pursues
genealogy as a hobby and a second line of work through his business, Family
History Facilitated.

Wayne is a native Calgarian and a descendant of many immigrants to
southern Alberta who originated in England, Scotland, Germany, the United
States and possibly other areas not yet determined. He actively explores many
family branches spread across Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and
Europe.